Prominent architect T. F. Lockwood designed First Baptist Church in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Henry Miller was the pastor at the time.
There have been numerous expansions to the original church over the years.
Tifton Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This was the first brick church built in Tifton, and served the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for generations. When they moved to a larger facility in 1952, it served numerous congregations over the following years. The Tift County Development Authority purchased it in 1985, to protect it from vandals and deterioration. In 1997, the Tifton Council for the Arts saw an opportunity and renovated the church into a gallery space and cultural museum. It is now known as the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center.
Tifton Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
An effort to locate isolated Episcopalians in South Georgia during the 1890s saw the establishment of several congregations, including St. Anne’s in Tifton. Edmund Harding Tift, brother of Tifton’s founder, Captain Henry Harding Tift, was at the forefront of this effort. The Tift family were vastly successful in the shipbuilding and lumber industries and gave resources and labor to the construction of St. Anne’s, which began in March 1898. The Carpenter Gothic sanctuary is clad in curly pine.
By the early 1980s, the congregation was beginning to outgrow its historic home and with an eye on new construction, moved it to its present location from the corner of Central Avenue and 4th Street in 1982.
Replaced by a more modern church in 1985, “Little St. Anne’s”, as it’s affectionately known, is still used for various services.
Thanks to my former Young Harris College classmate Emily Guerry, who serves as Parish Administrator, for a delightful personal tour and history lesson.